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School

University of Toronto Scarborough

Department

Sociology

Course

SOCA01H3

Professor

Ivanka Knezevic

Semester

Fall

Description

Lecture 7 – Thursday, November 1, 2012
 Sociological definition of deviance
o Deviance is non-compliance with social norms that provokes a negative social
reaction, and an attempt to control the behaviour and/or punish the
perpetrator.
o Crime is deviance sanctioned by law
o Objective and subjective concepts of deviance: moral status accorded thoughts,
actions, characteristics, and persons
o E.g. commit a crime, go to jail
o Definition changes over time; things considered okay before are deviant now e.g.
dropping out of high school, domestic violence
 Types of deviance:
o Social diversions: harmless non-compliance to social norms; it does not elicit
sanctions (“fads”) e.g. extreme piercing
o Social deviations: non-compliance to social norms that elicits an informal
sanction e.g. amish people leaving their community
o Conflict crimes: non-compliance to law; members of society disagree about its
seriousness and the appropriate sanction e.g. smoking marijuana, pirating music
o Consensus crimes: most members of society agree on their seriousness e.g. first
degree murder, rape,
 Is theft a consensus crime? Is murder a consensus crime?
o Cf. Sacco and Horton: ordinary and extreme deviance
 Theories of deviance:
o Why do some people engage in deviance?
 Structural-functionalist theories: strain, cultural support, differential
association
 Symbolic-interactionist: transactional, labelling
o Why don’t all people engage in deviance?
 Structural-functionalist: social control
o How are behaviours defined as deviant?
 Structural-functionalist: conservative control theory
 Neo-marxist: radical control theory
 Post-modernist: discourse as means of social control—normalized by the
powerful; minority views are unheard  Strain theory by Robert Merton (structural-functionalist): lack of fit between the
accepted cultural goals and socially acceptable means available to achieve these goals
e.g. poverty prevents you from getting a good education to get a good job
o This strain creates four types of coping strategies: innovation (crime), ritualism,
retreatism, and rebellion (textbook calls them 4 types of deviance but this is
incorrect)
 Conformity: the norm; accept cultural goals and accept the means to
achieve it
 Innovation: accept the cultural goal but reject the means because they
don’t have the means to meet the goal; e.g. people who sell drugs
 Ritualism: people who have given up on becoming wealthy, but they are
law-abiding people; they don’t steal/engage in fraud; they do the best
they can with what they have
 Retreatism: reject both cultural goal and means of achieving it; don’t
believe wealth is an important goal and don’t care about getting most
profitable job; focus more on artistic/spiritual development; retreating
from society e.g. monks
 Rebellion: reject societal goals but accept legitimate means to achieve
whatever goals they have e.g. sign petitions, organize rallies
o Critique: fails to account for middle-class and upper-class crime and deviance
o See strain theory table in textbook
 Cultural support theory (structural-functionalist) by Sutherland
o Subcultural theory: people become deviant because they are exposed to learning
experiences that make deviance more likely i.e. to a subculture of deviance
o Rationalisations: deviant people learn to believe that their behaviour is morally
acceptable e